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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
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    Berowra Waters
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    Default Advice on milling cutters

    I’ve progressed with my capabilities on the mill, and now find I’m needing more different cutters and slot drills regularly. What’s the advice on what to buy and how many? I’ve got a couple of fly cutters with inserts, and a sizeable collet set, just need to know what are the most common and useable slot drills and end mills to buy? Any particular make or supplier?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
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    sydney ( st marys )
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    For longevity of cutting edges on HSS cutters I would keep clear of the Chinese no name cutter's.
    Branded cutters should be fine..
    Size wise you can always cut bigger slots keyways and recesses with smaller size cutters.
    With End Mills you may want to look at long series cutters.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
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    Southern Flinders Ranges
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    1,536

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    Unless it’s a specialty cutter, I buy the 2/3/4 flute HSS cutters that are under 12mm from a couple of different places on eBay. The Chinese cutters last the same as any other if treated correctly. The saw doctor I use charges $13.50 a cutter to sharpen them, at 12mm or below they are throw away once dull (or use the rest of the tool for a custom grind). Above 10mm I use an assortment of second hand name brand cutters that are worth the cost of sharpening every so often and 300 series indexable cutters that take APMT1135 inserts. These came from the usual places (eBay, garage sales, gumtree and the used tooling bin at the local engineering tool supplier).
    I also use the 12mm indexable cutter in my boring head because then I only have one type of insert for the mill. Everything on the mill uses the APMT1135 inserts.
    As for sizing, it depends on what you are machining. Anything I’m building from scratch I design around tooling I already have. If you’re replicating/repairing/reverse engineering then you’re somewhat dictated to by the part you’re working on. How many you keep largely depends on your appetite for opening your wallet. I generally buy two or three of the common cutters at a time, nothing worse than breaking or chipping a cutter on the last operation and having to wait a week for another to arrive in the post and having to leave the setup in the mill for that time.

    You’ll likely get a multitude of different responses based on the individual respondents usage patterns and what they like to make with their machines. I do a bit of everything that mostly falls into the general fabrication bucket.

    Hope that’s of some help

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
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    Melbourne
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    34
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    These guys have decent stuff that doesn't cost a fortune https://www.ausee.com.au/shop/category.aspx?catid=1068
    Gear cutting specialists and general engineers www.hardmanbros.com.au
    Fine pitch gear cutting from 0.1 Module www.rigear.com.au

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    York, North Yorkshire UK
    Posts
    6,436

    Default

    Hi Riverbuilder, Guys,

    Depending upon what you are wanting to do a Dovetail cutter or two and "T" slot cutters, both relatively specialised toolbits, but invaluable if you need one !

    I tend to make use of carbide wood router cutters for things like edge rounding/chamfering and countersinking large holes. I can't count the number of times I've cut myself on a sharp edge despite being told to break all edges.

    Another tool bit that I should have is a round nose cutter, I keep meaning to buy one and then forget to ! That shows just how little I need one.
    Best Regards:
    Baron J.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Nov 2017
    Location
    Geelong, Australia
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    57
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    2,651

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    I don't do a lot of small (< 6mm) endmill work. Bought a couple of mixed size bundles of 3mm-12mm HSS Chinese endmills in 2 and 4 flute from ebay or AliExpress/Banggood a couple of years back and still have most of the smaller ones. Good to have a range of sizes even if only in cheap stuff. The smaller ones can be a bit fragile too, particularly when you don't have the spindle RPM to run them at a proper speed.

    6, 8, 10, 12, 16mm I use mostly, and a mixture of just cheap ebay etc HSS, and some HSS and carbide that I got from M&G (Magpro).
    Been quite happy with the value of the M&G cutting tools that I've bought - including some taps etc.
    DIN6527 Solid Carbide End Mills ,4FL TiALN Coated _Cutting Tools_M&G Productions
    Solid carbide above 12mm I've managed to avoid so far - the cost jump is a bit serious for me.

    Something to consider is whether you wear out endmills - or destroy them through breakage/crashes. If its the latter then there's no point buying high quality cutters that will wear well if they are going to meet a premature end.
    Another thing to consider is what you are machining. If its all soft stuff - normal steel or non-ferrous etc then HSS is fine and will last well if you give it a bit of love with some cutting oil etc and get your feeds and speeds right.
    If you're a bit of a scrap bin guy and likely to be using materials with an unknown origin you might find better value in having some carbide around for when you hit something a bit harder. Its a bugger to wreck a couple of brand new HSS ones when even a used carbide one would have easily done the job.
    Aluminium in general likes nice sharp tooling - so ideally you want to keep some sharp ones around if you're into that.

    I've got a repeat job I do every few months for a mate slotting some SHS parts, and for that I use 19mm HSS branded (NOS) long series that I got off ebay. If you're not wedded to an exact size then sometimes you can pick up NOS imperial cutters on ebay locally for much cheaper than the metric equivalent.

    Hands down my most used cutter on the mill is a Stellram 63mm facemill that takes 5 octagonal inserts. I bought it NOS from a UK ebay seller. Compared to the Chinese APMT shoulder mills/endmills that I've got the facemill is so smooth to use. High positive rake and 5 inserts - but mainly the rake that reduces the hammering.
    I use it whenever possible for facing or rough squaring up of stock and after using it for 4 years I'm still on the first set of inserts (although must be getting close to having used all 8 edges). I'm just running general inserts for steel and they have chewed through everything I've thrown at it from old forklift tines (4140??), gummy structural steel to cast iron. I love it!
    Getting a quality facemill of that size was a recommendation I got from another forum when I bought my first mill and I'm very pleased I took the advice.
    The only downside of that particular facemill is that the inserts aren't common, so the only option is genuine and hopefully NOS if you can get them. Oh - and the heat definitely comes out with the chips - they come off VERY hot.
    If I was buying again now I'd look at something that took a more common insert - likely 5 or 6 sided, but still buy a branded holder and inserts.
    As an aside, I'm perplexed by the tendency of a lot of YouTube creators to p about facing a eg 50mm block with a 10mm endmill. Its a lot slower than a facemill, and the light DOC is just wearing the critical corners of the endmill without using any of the length. Its definitely got to be more expensive on tooling in the long run that using a facemill. If someone can tell me what the attraction is I'd love to hear it.
    Anyway - rant over, and you were asking specifically about endmills - not facemills

    Steve

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
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    melbourne australia
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    Quote Originally Posted by OxxAndBert View Post
    If someone can tell me what the attraction is I'd love to hear it.
    Well it's just a guess, but the smaller the diameter of the cutter the less of a factor tramming is to the flatness of the surface?
    Chris

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